Rabbi Kalman Flaks: Gematriot for The Pesach Seder

[music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music and singing] >> So before we jump into a lot of beautiful Gematrias to the subject of tonight's sheer, I wanted to start maybe a new tradition which is to start with a story. A song and a story to open up our hearts. This is a true story that I heard from Reb Baruch Homem. And here's the story. So just a few years back there was a man sitting in shul in Tiveria listening to the drasha of a rabbi. This person, his name was Reuben I believe Margolius. He unfortunately had experienced a terrible trauma in the family 10 years earlier. Their four-year-old child in dinner had eaten the wrong thing and the doctors were not able to save his life and his soul his pure neshama went up to a higher place and this happened on Pesach. Just about 10 years prior. And in fact, it was such a trauma. Years the the family was was mourning and the woman Esther, his wife, was not able to give birth. The doctor said her body had such a trauma she was not able to give birth and they didn't know if she'd ever be able to give birth. And they had tried everything, every school in the book, and went to every rabbi, but so far he still had not been zocheh to a child. So it was pain after pain. In any case, 10 years later, here is Reuben listening to the drasha of the rabbi and it was the seventh day of Pesach, Shvi'i shel Pesach, a day set aside for miracles, and the rabbi was giving a drasha, you know, there's no shalah shudos, so the rabbi was getting up in the shul in Tiveria and he's giving them a beautiful drasha. He's talking about how now we're exiting Pesach and entering to the days of Sefirat HaOmer. The days of working on our middos, on our character traits. And he started talking about many different character traits to work on and one of them of course is the concept concept of being ma'avir al middosav, techa, which means someone insults you, don't respond. Be humble. Be sweet. And let it go. Let it be. You don't always have to respond with anger. And he went on to tell a particular story. And the story was of a man [clears throat] who wanted to have children but was not able to have children. And he had tried every school in the book and went every all the dig him and went to every rabbi. And at this point who starts perking up and listening really really well? Reuben, cuz that's exactly his story. And he's saying, "Oh my gosh, crazy. What are the odds?" It's a true story. Unbelievable. And he went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky. One of the gedolei hador lived in Bnei Brak, just like Rebbi Akiva. We'll talk about that soon. And he asked for bracha from the holy Rav Chaim. And Rav Chaim says, "Listen, I'll give you a bracha, but I'll tell you the truth, maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, I don't know. But you want a real guarantee for success? Here's what you got to do. Get a bracha from someone that was ma'avir al middosav, someone that was insulted and didn't respond in time with with uh anger, but let it be. That at that moment it's an eis ratzon. That man is like a tzaddik gomur in shamayim. Get a bracha from him or her and then you'll see blessings." So they said, "Okay. Sounds good, but it's not so easy to, you know, orchestrate that. You can't just be like, 'Hey, come insult me.' And then like it doesn't doesn't work. It doesn't work so well. So they didn't really know what to do with that." But he said, "Okay." Two weeks later, this man was at a wedding. And guess what? At this wedding there was a big argument going on at one of the tables and the man there was one man who was being insulted and like the whole family was insulting him. And what did he do? Nothing. He looked up at Hashem, he was humble, he let it go. And the man ran over. He said, "Please bless me." Of course the humble man said, "Me? I'm some a simple man." He said, "Please, I'm begging you." So okay, I blessed you with everything you want. He says, "Bless me for a child." I blessed you that you should have a child. And the man said "Amen." And exactly a year later, the man was zocheh to have a bris. And Reuben is listening very strong. And right as the rabbi finishes his beautiful drasha a Chabad guy jumps into the shul and he says, "Chevre!" He's got a box of matzah and a bottle of wine. He says, "Chevre, have you done the seudas Moshiach?" We all know the seventh day of of uh of Pesach any Chassidim, especially Chabad, they're makpid to to have to celebrate the Moshiach, have an extra meal with the matzah and wine. And chevre, it's not over, we can still eat matzah right now. So a few minutes to shkiya we can have wine. Let's do it. And he was so enthusiastic. And what does the this bunch of chevre what do they look at him like? "No! The rav's in the middle of talking. We're not a bunch of Chassidim. You know, get out of here." And and they were they knew what chutzpah what I was saying to people. And he mamish embarrassed him. And his face turned red. And he walked out of the shul. And Reuben looks up and thinks to himself, "Did you just see that? Did you see what just happened? I can't believe it." And he runs out of the shul, he gets makes a beeline. Comes to the man, the Chabadnik, and he says, "Young man, give me a bracha. Give me a bracha." He says, "What? Me? What do you want from me?" He had tears in his eyes. "Please, I'm begging you. Bless me with a child." He puts his hands on him and he blesses him. "Everything that your davening should happen, I bless you with a child." And exactly a year later he was zocheh. He named his son after the shul, the rabbi of the shul, Dovid. And uh it happened on Pesach. It happened on Pesach. And Pesach is a time where we experience maror and we experience matzah. We experience everything. We all experience a lot of maror in our lives and we all experience a lot of matzah. We should all be zocheh to have a lot more matzah in our lives than maror, but they go together. And first off I just want to bless everyone here that we should mekabel all the brachas and we should know that the brachas flow into us and we become a conduit to flow blessings into other people when we have that humble matzah. When we have when we are those humble matzahs, so the blessing mamish flows into our lives. Kevod kevod. So kevod we we we start with a story. And now hopefully we're ready for some beautiful gematrias and we're going to throw in a bunch of b'ezras Hashem a bunch of more stories along the way. That's the plan for the next I don't know, 45 minutes or so. Sounds good? You ready? All right. This is the sheer I've always wanted to give. Top 10 gematrias on Pesach. I'm sure you all will have a whole another list of gematrias next year, but these are the first top 10 that came through my head. Some of them actually I made up as I was preparing this year. We'll see we'll see if you like them. And uh let's just give a a quick introduction. What is gematria? Gematria is the numerical equivalent of each letter. We know according to the Mishna in Pirkei Avos and the Chassidus and Kabbalah talk a lot about this, the world is created with letters. So each letter has a lot of significance. And there are many different levels to the Torah. The Torah can be written in codes. In gematria, there are many different types of gematria, but gematria is one way of decoding deeper layers of the Torah. Now what's the earliest source uh for gematrias? First off, there's a famous Mishna. Mishna in Pirkei Avos. Pirkei Avos tells us in third chapter Pirkei Avos, "Amor Reb Elazar ben Chisma uh nida cycles and bird offerings, that's the main area of halacha. That's what we should focus on. But astronomy and gematria, parparos of wisdom." What's parparos? Appetizers. Spices. Different ways of translating it, but they make it sweeter. You know, you put a little charif. Put a little sriracha. It makes it nice, you know? It's not the bread, but it's right? In other words, the way that most understand it is that of course we don't derive halakha from gematrias, cuz then people can start abusing gematrias. You can go on the internet, you can find all sorts of random weird gematrias for every religion out there. We don't base it purely on a gematria, but gematrias are a part of our tradition that can support and make sweeter and deeper uh many of the ideas in our tradition. Okay? Like a guide at the end general. And in fact, Rabbi Yosiya Galili, who will mention one of his aggadatas, writes that the 28th rule for interpreting the Chumash is gematria. So, it's actually a way in which we which which we can darshan sukkin. In fact, it's interesting. There are some uh halakhas which seem to be derived from gematrias. The Gemara in Sotah daf hey talks about uh from the gematria yihyeh, yud hey yud hey, which is 30, we derive that a nazir minimally has to have 30 days. 30 days is the minimum which uh of a vow. So, then they say, wait, are we really learning that from the yihyeh? So, the Rambam says, no, it's an asmachta, which means really we had a tradition, but we wanted to support it with this gematria. Another very very famous gematria is mitzvahs. We've all heard of the concept that there's 613 mitzvahs. There's books and books trying to figure out what are the 613 mitzvahs. What is the source that there are 613 mitzvahs? Where does it say that in the Torah? Here are the 613 mitzvahs. Where does it say that, guys, in the Torah? It was a trick question. It's not in the Torah. So, where does it say in our tradition? Ah, it's a Gemara which says Torah and we do the math. Tav, 400. Vav, six. 406. Resh, 200. 606. Hey, 611. Torah tziva lanu Moshe. Moshe gave us Torah. 611. What What we're missing? Two. Ah, but two of them were given to us directly by Hakadosh Baruchu. 611 + 2 613 mitzvahs. That's the source. That gematria is the source of the 613 commandments, one of the most fundamental aspects of Judaism. Okay? And there are a few other laws which seem to be derived from um gematrias. All right? Gary was giving us a beautiful shiur about this third and all those things and few other things which seem to derive. Anybody have any things which come to their head about Um so, the last Mishnah in the in the Mishnah involves a gematria. So, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said that the the tzaddikim will inherit yesh Ah. 310 310 worlds. Beautiful. So, the last Mishnah in Shas, beautiful, talks about how tzaddikim tzaddikim will inherit 310 worlds from the word yesh, which is a gematria. Not the store yesh, but the the gematria of how many worlds we're all going to get. Yesh. Beautiful. Two beautiful examples. And there are many other examples. So, that's just an introduction to say we're not just making There's real depth in Chassidus and Kabbalah really talks a lot about the importance of gematria. And it's makes a lot It makes life more fun. So, here is some gematrias to enlighten to enliven our Seder. You ready? We're going to do it in um Seder chronological order. Sounds good? Let's do it. Yeah, this is kind of a gematria related to a gematria. The Baal Hafla'ah. That is Rav Pinchas Horowitz, who has amazing chiddushim all throughout the Torah, amazing genius finds. He's uh based in in Frankfurt, in Germany, between 1720 1720 and 1804. And he writes that if you count, and he did this before computers, all of the names of Yud Kay Vav Kay, the way that Hashem revealed himself to Moshe Rabbenu, you will find 1,820 times does Yud Kay Vav Kay appear. Okay? Which if I'm not mistaken, I could be wrong about this. Check count me Check me. Is 26 * 26. Maybe. But 1,800 No. Okay, so that was a trick. I want to make sure you guys were were were were paying attention. Very good. It It has some significance why it's 1,820. I forgot. Why is that significant? Because if you count from the beginning of the Haggadah until the end of the Haggadah, I know that from the word ha lachma anya till ga'al Yisrael, and yours is really later editions, guess how many words there are? 1,820. 1,820 Yud Kay Vav Kays, 1,820 words. Wow. For that alone was worth coming in this cold night to understand that every word of the Seder has tremendous significance. 1,820 1,820. Wow. But why? What is What is the Haggadah have to say do with Yud Kay Vav Kay? And the answer of course is everything. The whole story of Yetziat Mitzrayim is the story of the revelation of Yud Kay Vav Kay. Hakadosh Baruchu says, now, Moshe Rabbenu, I'm going to start revealing Yud Kay Vav Kay. That the God who is was will always will be the God who's beyond time, who can do miracles, who can go beyond nature. And there was one character in the Holy Bible who in particular does not believe in Yud Kay Vav Kay, and that is Pharaoh. Pharaoh, the leader of the Egyptians. Right? Cuz Pharaoh, let's go back to Yosef HaTzaddik. Originally, Pharaoh asked Yosef to interpret the dream, back in Genesis 48. And what does Yosef say? And Pharaoh says, please interpret the dream. And Yosef says, I'm not going to interpret the dream. Biladi. Who's going to interpret the dream? Elohim ya'aneh et shalom Pharaoh. God, Elohim is going to God. And indeed he answers it. He He interprets the the the dream. And Pharaoh says, hanimtsa kaze ish asher ruach Elohim bo? So, Pharaoh believes, wow, he's got Elohim is in this man, Yosef. Elohim, God is helping him. But later, let's fast forward. There's a new Pharaoh in town. And Moshe goes up to Pharaoh and says, Hey, Pharaoh, let my people go and serve God in the desert. Cuz Yud Kay Vav Kay commanded us to go to the desert. And what's Pharaoh's response? What does he say about this? He doesn't know this God. He's never heard of this Yud Kay Vav Kay. >> [snorts] >> So, what's going on? Did he believe in Elohim or did not believe in Did he believe in God or not believe in God? And the answer is he believed in Elohim. He didn't believe in Yud Kay Vav Kay. What's the difference? As we all know from the Tanya, Elohim is a gematria 86. What else is a 86? Ha teva. Nature. Pharaoh believed in the God of nature. Pharaoh believed in a God who created the world. And actually, I believe the Egyptians were one of the first monotheists. They Well, they believed in one God, but it was a little bit complicated. Right? But in any case, he believed in a God. Elohim. But he didn't believe in Yud Kay Vav Kay, someone who can go above and beyond nature and change nature. That was too much. That he didn't believe in. Okay? That's what the Zohar says. He believed in Elohim, he didn't believe in Yud Kay Vav Kay. And the whole story of Yetziat Mitzrayim, the whole story that we're proclaiming on the Haggadah is the we're showing that there is a Yud Kay Vav Kay. Lema'an teida ki Ani Hashem, Ani Yud Kay Vav Kay bekerev ha'aretz. All right? What do the sorcerers say? They say yad Elohim. Elohim. For They They're willing to say etzba Elohim. But God says, no, no, I'm Yud Kay Vav Kay. He's showing them the whole idea of the 10 plagues is to show you I control nature. Nature is is is I own it. The All the 10 plagues are demonstrating God's uh God's rule over all of nature. I mean, Netivot Shalom, he shows in each uh plague it's showing a different way of how God rules over the world. And that's the whole idea to demonstrate that he rules over nature and he can change nature if he so chooses. Okay? And that's why there's 1,820 names of Yud Kay Vav Kay and 1,820 in the Seder. Pretty crazy, no? All right, so that's number one. And the gematria is a teva. So far, so good. Yeah? Okay. I should have told you guys to bring your calculators and your pens and papers, but it's okay. Okay. The next one I want to talk a little bit about karpas. Okay? This gematria you're not going to find in any sefarim because as I was preparing this year, this afternoon, I made it up. So, you know, pretend like it's good. So, you know, so I'll feel good about myself. Okay? So, karpas. What's that all about? Why why why why we dipping this Some people do potatoes, Ashkenazi mylo, and some people do parsley and different vegetable items, and we dip it. We dip it and we call it karpas. So, really, we have two separate questions. Why do we dip it? And why do we call it karpas? Seems like a little bit of a random name. Okay? So, that could be a sheer of an itself, but I'm going to stick give you the the answer in like 3 minutes. Later is we're dipping because what got us down to Egypt in the first place? The dipping by Balu Badam, the dipping of Joseph's tunic in the blood. They dipped the sinas chinam. That's what got us down because they sold and then we went down to Egypt and we got stuck in it all because of the brotherly hatred. And that's why we're still stuck in galas because we still haven't fixed that brotherly hatred. And that's why when we leave Egypt, we dip again. We dip the hyssop with the naguda into the eizo. We gather together into the hyssop of the saf, reminding us of Joseph. So, in this time we have to dip but together. We have to bring bring each other each other with love and oneness and we leave Egypt. That's why we dip. That's karpas. And that's what karpas alludes to. The pas is for the tonet pasim. That he was sold from the coat. The car is from machar. He was sold down because of the tonet pasim. The dipping the dipping. Very nice, but there's still no gematria. Okay. So, where's the gematria? Although that is tough is pretty cool. You can use that at your seder. Okay? What's the gematria of karpas? Chaf 20, resh 220, pay 80 300, samech 360. The same gematria as shas. Ah. Not the political organization, but rather the Talmud. Shas. That's what we call the gemara. What's the ultimate thing that you're going to bring that brotherhood that we need? You're going to bring us together? Torah. Learning gemara. The Torah the values that have been conveyed to us by shas. That's ultimately what brings the Jewish people together. You could say, "Ah, it's good to have a kumsitz. Good it's good to sing. It's good." Sure. But ultimately the Torah is what's going to unite us and and and and and and bring that the mashiach. And the values of the Torah and of shas. That's my chiddush. Take it or leave it. Yeah. You said in your last speech that it's a Persian word. Ah, it is a Persian word. >> Now we have issues with Persia. And now we have Persia. So, ah, go tell all the rabbis, how we going to beat the Persians? Through learning more shas. Learning more shas. But not just learning, bringing the values of shas. And on that I have another story. Cuz I told you guys 10 gematrias, five stories. So, there will be some shorties. So, the I think the Rav Me the Teplitzer Rav. Something like that. As recounted in Rav Judah Michelle's beautiful taf air by Derech. So, he says it's erev Pesach, just like a beautiful night like this and all the bachrum are steigging very hard. And just a few days before Pesach. And there's kol Torah and they're learning shas. And suddenly the Rav makes a clap on the stander and says, "Chevreh, you're learning beautifully, but there's a chesed that must be done. There's some women that have reached out to me. These poor women are struggling. They need help. Who's going to volunteer to bring Torah and chesed together and help these poor women in our community?" And everybody raises their hand and says, "Rebbi, we're willing to do it. We're going to help." He says, "Beautiful." He calls them in. I'm going to give each one for the sake of privacy a particular address of a family that you can help with their Pesach preparation. So, he calls the first guy in and he says, "Ah, Kalman, here's the address." And he gets 12 side you got home. My house. And he goes, "Each person gets their house." He says, "Go help your wife. They need your help right now." Ah. So, it's not just about learning shas. It's about bringing the values of shas of Torah and chesed together. There's a time to learn. There's a time to help and do chesed. You have to combine both worlds. There's a time and place for everything. Actually, that story happened to me. I remember in my shana aleph the rosh yeshiva clapped and said, "Everybody, go clean your room." Cuz he heard the rooms were a mess. Then we went back for the next seder. Okay, that was we're up to story number two and gematria number three. You ready? Okay. Uh this is a famous one. You'll humor me. You'll listen even though I'm sure you all know it by heart. This of course is the most important gematria Torah to know about the four sons. In particular to know about the rasha. So, everybody asks, "Ayayayayayayayay. I don't I don't understand. We have a rasha. He bothered to come to my seder. Hack head enough? Give him an uppercut? You know, what's going on here? Sharpen his teeth? If you would have been in Egypt, you wouldn't have made it out. He's quite we call him a kofer kafer be ikar. What's going on? What kind of education is that? He bothered to come to the the seder. Okay, he has some questions. Ma avada izot lachem? Give him a hug. As Rav Cook so beautifully writes, what's going on? So, there's many answers. Rav Shlomo's answer. Rav has a lot of answers. One of Rav Shlomo's answers he says, "You know, Mr. Rasha, Hashem gave you teeth. You know what you're trying to do? You're trying to swallow Torah. You start swallowing Yiddishkeit without any without using your teeth. Trying to swallow it whole. Just do the whole Shulchan Aruch without breaking it down, understanding the sweetness, understanding the depth, understanding the meaning behind it. So, you're you're not using your teeth. So, you you teach him how to use his teeth. You give him a good chassidus sheer. Give him a good cholent. Give him a l'chaim. And then you you teach him how to use his teeth. Ush'nuntam avanecha. That's Rav Shlomo's answer. But this isn't a sheer about the rasha cuz I did that last year. But we have to do something new. We got to give the famous gematria of the holy holy Alshich. The Baal Darshan. The best darshan in Jewish history, according to some. Certainly one of the greatest. Even though the Arizal himself used to listen to the drashos of the Alshich. The Arizal wanted to listen to the kabbalah, but his neshama was meant for drashos. So, listen to this. He says, "You know what we're doing? We You know there's no tzaddik. There's a rasha, there's a chacham. Why is there no tzaddik as one of the four children? Cuz nobody's born a tzaddik. We have to make him a tzaddik. Every little kid, they're beautiful, they're sweet, but they have a little bit of a rasha in them. Don't tell moms, but you listen the little kids are beating each other up. They don't They don't have a yetzer tov yet. We have to take them from a rasha and make them a tzaddik. So, what are we doing? We're taking the rasha gematria, resh 200, shin 300, ayin 70, 570. And then we're knocking out his teeth. What's his teeth? Shin is 300. Nun is 50. Yud is 10. Vav is six. 366. 570 minus 366 equals 200 and four. And what's that? Am I getting it right? Tzaddik. Tzaddik is 90. Yud 10. Dalet 104. >> [snorts] >> 204. We're taking the rasha. We're sharpening his teeth a little bit and we're making a tzaddik out of him. That's what we're doing. How do we do that? Like I said before, ein sham hugs, love. You're one of us. You're not an outsider. You go to your local kiruv uh Orthodox rabbi and they'll tell you how to do it. But the point is that the Alshich saves us. Ah. Gevaldig. What the gematria saves us. Where would we be without this beautiful gematria of the Alshich? We would be giving uppercuts to reshaim at the seder. But because of the of the gematria, maybe my favorite gematria, one of the most fun fundamental gematrias in all of Torah of the Alshich, we're showing the rasha love and bringing him closer. At the end there will be a test on all the gematrias and you're going to rate your favorite gematria. Okay? Sounds good? Okay, so that was gematria number three. Sounds good? Beautiful. Beautiful. Okay, holy brothers and holy sisters. Ayayayayayayay. We're in Torah number four. We're up to yachatz. We're breaking the matzoh the matzoh. And everybody asks, "Why do we break the matzoh? It's a beautiful little matzoh. Why why do we have to take the middle one and break it?" And this too. So many beautiful Torahs. So many unbelievable teachings. Yaakov avinu vayachatz et ha'am and ah, we can go mamish an hour just about yachatz. And I'm sure one day we'll we should be zocheh. Should be zocheh to do so, please God. But I want to tell you Rav Carlebach's Torah. says, "You know what? On seder night, kadesh. I feel so I want to be so holy. I'm feeling so holy. Urchatz. I want to wash away the whole world. But before I can wash away the whole world and purify and do that kiruv I was just telling you about, I need to realize the world is yachatz. The world is broken. Until I can connect a little bit and cry and be there and hold hands with that rasha and ask that those questions myself and realize the world is a broken place, so then I can't really I can't really connect to the and I can't really then go to the matzah of freedom. First, I have to cry a little bit. says on the night of Seder you can ask all your questions. You should ask your questions on God during the Monistat. Go outside and ask all your questions. Feel the brokenness cuz this time is so close. is so close on the Seder night. And then after we break the Yachatz, then we can get it go to the matzah of freedom. But what does that have to do with Gematria? So I was just thinking Yachatz Yud 10 Chet is 18 Tzadik 90. Tzadik Yud 108. Wait, I miscalculated. Gevolt, so even me I'm bro- I'm broken a little bit right now because I thought it was 98 like the 98 curses there's really it's 108. And so this beautiful Gematria will not be one of the top 10, unfortunately. And I'm broken. But I still got to tell you good Rishon L'Tzion Torah about brokenness. And since I told you Rishon L'Tzion Torah, I'll tell you a good story. About how sometimes even a broken place you have to just be perfect with that. So there was a great rabbi his name is Rav Eliyahu. Rav Eliyahu lived in Yerushalayim. He was a big big tremendous Tzadik. And a Talmid came to visit Rav Eliyahu who was already an older man. And he wanted to ask if the the Rebbe needed any help. And he came in and he was kind of expecting a the Rebbe big Abba with many children sitting around his table. But instead, he found him and his wife in a quiet little broken down apartment sitting doing their Seder. And the guy looked a little surprised. And then he could see Rav Eliyahu saw he could see he was a little surprised. And Rav Eliyahu says, "Rebbe, you don't you don't understand? To be B'Simcha, to really be in Seder, means it could just be you and your wife or you alone and you feel the Shechinah. And you feel the Simcha, you don't need anything else. You don't need nothing. Okay? Because you have the Shechinah. Anyways, I thought that was a good story. I was feeling that a little bit today. This flight got canceled and that flight got canceled and it might just be end up being just me and my wife alone this Pesach. Last year we had 40 people at the Seder. And maybe that's the test, right? The old the good old Corona test. Can you just do Seder alone and be happy with that? Cuz the Shechinah is there. Anyways, okay. So now we're back to Gematria number four. Ah, the other Gematria that if you don't know this Gematria you just don't know you don't know P'shat in the Haggadah if you don't know this Gematria. Sometimes you don't know about you don't know P'shat. So we get to that middle part of the Seder right after you did all of the Divrei Torah about the Yachatz and the right. And then you get to the the and you get to this wild Drasha about all of the different smitings that God did to the Egyptians, okay? So said the first we said there was 10 Makos that were all we're all good with. Right? And then we summarize it. We use it as a mnemonic in case we can't remember. They didn't have the songs 10 Makos Makos 10. So you have to summarize it. Detzach Adash B'Achav, right? And so he has the three three little words of mnemonic of how to remember the 10 commandments the 10 10 Makos. Yeah? So then Rav Yossi says, "Ah, no, actually you thought there was 10 Makos? There was actually another 50 at the sea." And he Darshens it up that there was 50 at the sea. And then Rav Eliezer says by the way Rav Yossi HaGlili, he was a Gematria man. So then Rav Eliezer says Rav Eliezer, "No, no, there was 40 Makos plus and you multiply by five and you get 200." Then says Rav Akiva, "No, no, no, there was 50 Makos." So then and and and 50 plus 250 cuz times five so there's 300 altogether. And you're looking at yourself scratching like, "Did these rabbis not have more to do with their time? What were what were they doing? Counting the Makos? What were they doing?" By the way, maybe that's exactly what they were doing. Says Rav the Or HaPele Yoetz, they were Mesaprim all night long. They were counting all night not long at Rav Akiva's Seder. What does Mesaprim normally mean? They were telling stories. They were telling about Yitziat Mitzrayim. What does Mesaprim also mean? To count. They were doing Gematrias. They were Dar- Darshening. They were learning all the different ways of how many Makos there were. Okay, very nice. But who cares? Why do I care that there's this many Makos and that many Makos? Comes the Heilige Sfas Emes, the great Rav Yehudah Alter of Ger, the great Polish Rabbi. And he he teaches us 10 Makos plus three is 13. Plus Rav Yossi is 60 plus Rav Eliezer is 240 plus Rav Akiva is 300 altogether you get 613. Gevolt. 613, unbelievable. What are the odds? There was 613 Makos according to the the calculations of all the rabbis. In other words, the Makos of Mitzrayim was the Middas HaDin. Zeh L'Umas Zeh, this negative energy would then be transferred to the Jewish people for the 613 commit- commandments. So the negative ultimately the judgment the Gevurah leads to the Chesed. And it's just wild. You thought it was just a wild Gematria a wild Drasha but each number had such significance to get us to 613. Unbelievable. One of my favorite uh Gematrias in all of Torah from the Heilige Sfas Emes. Gevolt. Okay. Beautiful. A few more. A few more. We have time. We'll see if I have time for a story about Sfas Emes. Let Let's get to the Gematrias first. Okay, Pesach. There's something called Milui. Milui in Gematria means you don't just have the letter Peh is Peh is 80 Sameach but you spell out the letter. You with me? So Peh Peh is Peh Heh. Sameach is Sameach Mem Chet. Chet No, not Chet. Chet is Chet Tet. Okay? So you guys don't seem to have your calculator so I'll just get to the to to the punchline. Pesach in Milui, can you imagine is 613? Ex- Pesach is 613. Wow. I just think of what's Mitzrayim We only can say Mitzrayim we only can say Pesach at the time that Pesach is in front of us. That the Pesach we don't have a Korban Pesach unfortunately so we point to the Zeroa. But why why why is that? I was thinking maybe like this. Once upon a time we didn't have 613 Mitzvos. We had one Mitzvah. And what was that Mitzvah? The first Mitzvah that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us was Achoti Kallah Zeh L'Achaim. But the first Mitzvah that we actually had to do something, not just the court doing something, but us Jewish people doing something was of course the sacrificing of of the lamb. Of by the way the the Tleh was the Mazal of the Egyptians. So Hashem is lifting himself over their Mazal and he's saying, "You Jewish people were above the Mazal, right? Yud Keh Vav Keh." And they did an action of Mesiras Nefesh of lifting themselves above the Egyptians and being willing to die. "I don't care what the Egyptians say, I'm going to do what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants me to do." And that was that one Mitzvah which really encapsulates all 613 Mitzvos at that moment. And they said there's sometimes a person can do one Mitzvah of of Mesiras Nefesh for Am Yisrael and that just catapults him to the highest level of Tzadikim of Kedoshim. Cuz encapsulated is in in Pesach is the highest levels. In in that Mesiras Nefesh. Maybe that's why in Pesach God stresses he calls it Pesach. We call it Chag HaMatzos but he calls it Pesach cuz he stresses the Jewish people's Mesiras Nefesh. And that's why he lifts us he jumps us. Pesach literally means to jump. He jumps us to the highest spiritual level in the Zechus of our Mesiras Nefesh. And I'm sure we mentioned this before that the Mesiras Nefesh of all the Chayalim out there fighting for Am Yisrael is what's catapulting Am Yisrael to be experiencing so many Yeshuos and B'Ezras Hashem to experience more Yeshuos. Cuz that one Mitzvah encapsulates all the other 613. So Pesach has in it all 613 uh aspects of Torah. Gevolt. Okay. Another Pesach Torah. Not more meaning of the word Pesach in the simple level. Peh 80. Sameach 60. Chet eight. 148. What's the significance of 148? It's Bitachon twice. Bitachon is 74 Bitachon times two. What are the times two? The first Bitachon was on the first night of Pesach. Imagine you're in jail and you've been stuck here for 20 10 years 20 Everything you know is in jail. And then you have to make that move of leaving running away. So that was the Jewish people. We were stuck in servitude for so many so many years but we had Bitachon, we killed the lamb and we ran out of on that first night of Pesach. That was the first act of bitachon. The second time of bitachon was of course by kriyas Yam Suf. Seventh day when we jumped into the water and according to the Midrash, right? So that was our second And that's why the first day of Yom Tov and second day second days are in the seventh day of Yom Tov. Put them together, 72 + 72 74 + 74 just 148. You know? Yeah? 74 + 74 148 givat. And that is Pesach. Bit- the time of bitachon. By the way, here in shul I didn't count it up, but you can count it up later. That bitachon and emunah is azaka. Or azakot, something like that. That these all these azakot are there to remind us to have bitachon and emunah in Hashem. Givat. Beautiful. Okay. Where are we holding? I think we're in approximately gematria number eight with 14 minutes to go. We need to make sure we get us to at least one more story in there. Okay. This is one of my favorite ones. You ready? So we said Pesach, but what about matzah? What's the significance of the gematria of matzah? So before I answer that question like a good rabbi, I'm going to ask you another question. And the question is why don't we answer the poor kid's question? The poor The kid asks mah nishtanah halaila. Is it sh'micol al lecho anachnu chameitz u'matzah? Okay, so that we kind of allude to an answer. But the last two questions, the dipping on all other nights we dip and tonight we dip we we dip twice. Where in the seder do we answer the kid's question? On all other nights we lean, tonight we don't lean, tonight we lean. Where in the seder do we talk talk about leaning? We don't mention it. He poor kid, he asks all these questions and we we sneak we say, "Ah, so the children will ask." And then they give that kid some matzah and then hide the afikoman so he won't bother us and we move on with our lives. Ah, he doesn't stay. He went to bed and then we f- We pull a fast one on him. So ta-da, I'll tell you the answer. I'll tell you the answer. The answer is matzah. The answer is matzah. Cuz the heilige holy Zohar teaches us that matzah is the the bread of faith. When you eat the matzah, you ingest emunah into your system. It's a direct infusion of emunah. And we have a proof. Because there are three mahs. Because there's four kids, but only three of them ask a question. Which one doesn't ask a question? The she'eino yodea lishol. He doesn't know what to ask. So he doesn't say but who asked the other three? So mah mah mah. Mah mah mah. Mah mah mah mah, right? Mah is 45. Plus another 45. Plus another 45 is 135. What's that the gematria of? Matzah. So the answer to the mahs of life is matzah. The answer is ingest the matzah. Eat the matzah. You don't have to give them an intellectual answer. You don't tell them, "Well, leaning and you know, it's freedom and in the olden in the Talmudic era people used to lean in this manner and it symbolized or you could say, "Ah, dipping because we're tamei." No, no. Just have them eat matzah. In other words, emunah is something that you ingest, you experience. It's something that needs to be experienced. Kedushah is something that needs to be experienced. The Baba Sali Rebbe, if I'm not mistaken, his birthday is tonight. Right? Today? But you chassidim can extend a little bit so it's it's in the air. So the Baba Sali Rebbe when some when somebody came out and he he said "Rebbe, I want to I want to make a significant donation." So the Baba Sali Rebbe says "You should buy shmurah matzah for poor Jews in Eretz Yisrael." He says, "Rebbe, that's very nice, but like maybe like a building, you know, like orphans, like something like significant. Like like that's going to last a very long time. Matzah's nice, but So the Rebbe says, "You want to give a building, build a building. But you want to make a difference, something that's going to last? Shmurah matzah." Cuz the Rebbe believed in the power of mitzvahs. That's you infu- in- ingest emunah. You have to have the kavana obviously when you eating it and you're thinking that you're mamesh bringing yeshuos into yourself. Bringing emunah into yourself. So emunah is something that needs to be experienced of course. We should try our best intellectually to give good answers. We have to recognize at the end of the day it's it's fulfilling the mitzvahs with joy with matzah that that experience. By the way, the gematria of lechem oni 135. Same thing. Lechem oni, the answer to all of our questions is matzah. The answer, my friends, is matzah. You got to email Bob Dylan. It's matzah in the wind. The answer is matzah. Givat. Like the Heilige Chofetz Chaim says, with emunah there's no questions. Without emunah, there's no answers. Okay. Givat. I think we're up to the maror. Ay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay. Okay. This is one of the most famous and delicious gematrias. We did matzah, we did Pesach. What about maror? So what's the source of having maror? The pasuk in Sh'mos perek aleph pasuk dalet shins vayimareru es chayeihem. They embittered their lives. Says the Heilige Gra. Ah, we're bringing together the Gra and the Lubavitch and Lubavitcher Rebbe. Mamesh. Bringing achdus Yisrael am Yisrael. So the Gra said that every little symbol what's a trop has meaning. Because if you take the gematria of kadma v'azla, which is what we call those two dots that when you lean it it adds up to Is it 210 or 190? I think it's 210. If you have your calculators, you can add it up. I'm sure they have an app, a gematria app. They do. Go Kadma v'azla. Okay? I think it's 210. In this because of the embitterment of the Jewish people, we got out of Egypt 190 years early. Kadma v'azla means to get up and leave. Because he embittered our spirit with all of these afflictions we didn't have to do the whole 400 years. We were able to leave earlier. God realized that we were going to get swallowed up by the assimilation by the 50th level of impurity. So he kadma v'azlad us out of there by through the vayimareru es chayeihem by embittering our lives. So the maror is hard, it's painful. But we have to recognize that the pain is there for a deeper reason. God has a plan. We don't always understand it. We try, we guess. But we always have to as Rachel Imeinu Franco, the mother of Naftali Franco, one of the three um who were cap- kidnapped, she she she she's an amazing educator and she says the maror is still there, the pain is there. But sometimes you have to use your camera and zoom out and look at the the maror of our lives in the context of the matzah and and and and everything else. So we have to recognize with the emunah of the matzah that the maror there is ultimately for our best even though we don't understand why, but we understand we we have faith that Hashem has a plan. Okay. On the level This is a bonus one. This is really if you're counting doing gematria, this is really number 10 and I'm going to give you 11, but I'll give you an extra one. Kos. What's kos? We have four cups. Kos is gematria 86. 86 + 86 + 86 + 86 + 86 equals 344. Okay, which is gematria of shmad. He's taking out every cup of wine is getting us out of the shmad. And who took us out of Egypt? Moshe. What's Moshe's gematria? 345. You're allowed to be off by one with the kollel. So Moshe took us out. The geulah comes through the four cups of wine. So drink up, okay? Don't don't hold that. Oh, what's 340? If you have the fifth cup, I don't know. I didn't do the math yet. We'll have to figure that out afterwards. Okay. Um I think this might be our final gematria for the night, sadly. We'll see. We'll see if other ones come down. Final gematria. Many have a custom at the end of the seder to stay up, not singing rock and roll songs, but to sing Shir Hashirim. Maybe you've seen this custom. Uh it's in the Haggadah. Look in your Haggadah, often have a Shir Hashirim. Why why Shir Hashirim? On the simple level, because Shir Hashirim is it's a love song. It's a love song between us and Kadosh Baruch Hu and Pesach is the night of we feel that love, tremendous love of Kadosh Baruch Hu. But there's another reason. And it all comes down to gematrias. Because you know how many psukim there are in Shir Hashirim? 117. 117. So what? Why is that significant? Because according to the Seder Olam, I know I might be contradicting myself a little bit here, but that's okay. The Seder Olam says we were actually only in Egypt 117 years. In other words, when Levi died, the last of the children of Yakov, then the harsh shibud began. And then we had 117 really bad years. And the Shir Hashirim is recognizing that we still felt Hashem's love even during those dark times, Kodesh Baruch Hu was still watching over us. And this kodesh of our acceptance of the hard times of that maror we zocheh to bimamteek the dinim and sweeten the judgments. So, that's 117. In fact, there is a tradition that resha'im have 117 hours in Gehennam each week. I don't That's according to the Kabbalah. That's what they say. Interesting. So, what? Um 117 and 117. It's interesting. We went down to Mitzrayim anus al pi hadibur. Says the Chida, we had no choice because of our speech. Anus al pi hadibur. On a simple level, because God had spoken at the bris bein habetarim that we had go go down to Egypt. But on a deeper level, anus gematria 116 plus one with the kolel 117. And it all goes back to that original idea, anus al pi hadibur. Anus, why? Because of our speech. Because we spoke lashon hara. Because Yosef spoke badly about the brothers, and they spoke badly about him, and we couldn't get together, and we had that sinas chinam. And so, we fix our speech on the night of Pesach when our mouth is opened with joy and positivity, and we praise Hashem with the dayenu, which is gematria 70. The so, the secret is gratitude, which is min hametzar karati Kah. Okay, I told you we'd throw in some bonus ones. The point is we should speak positivity, we should get rid of the sinas chinam, we should speak lovingly and kindly, we should speak praise to Kodesh Baruch Hu. And in that zechus, we will be zocheh to the Mashiach tzidkeinu. Kevod Kevod. And uh since I still have 3 minutes, I'm going to end with my favorite Pesach story. Because it's the one that's very favorite Pesach story, so it's also my favorite Pesach. You know, another one just came Oh, given the quickie and then Story number no one, Rav Aryeh Levin. He, of course, is the tzaddik of our generation. He used to go to the prisons. And he used to visit. And after one Pesach with the prisoners in the Russian compound, these tz- tzaddikim were rebelling against the the the Brits. He says he says, "Chevreh, how was Pesach?" You see, I didn't make sure they had matzah and they had wine. Says, "Rebbi, it was amazing, but there was one thing that was missing. We didn't have Eliyahu Hanavi. We weren't able to go outside the Brit- the British wouldn't leave let us leave the compound to open up the door for Eliyahu Hanavi. Eliyahu Hanavi wasn't zocheh to come to our Pesach Seder." So, Rav Aryeh Levin said, "You think Eliyahu Hanavi is, you know, dependent on the Brits? Eliyahu Hanavi, he's right here. He's in your heart. We symbolically go outside and we and and and we and we open up the the gates. But really, when we're going outside, and by the way, Rav someone would make a big deal, he'd say, "When you go outside, you momish have to daven your hearts out. Daven for the Mashiach when when you open the door for Eliyahu, especially this year, you momish have to daven, sing." Remember one year I was in Zimbabwe, and we got all the chevreh to be singing Eliyahu Hanavi animani min hashamaim. Should we zocheh to momish sing it wherever you are? But all of that is just symbolical to open up our hearts. Cuz ultimately, Eliyahu Hanavi is waiting there at all of our Seders. But the key is to open up our hearts. Open up our hearts, holy brothers and holy sisters. And that brings you and me to my fav- favorite Pesach story. One year, Rav Levi Yitzchak, we started off singing his niggun, we'll end off singing his niggun. After the Pesach Seder, his chassidim said, "Oh, Rebbi, that was the most highest Pesach Seder we've ever experienced. It's unbelievable. We stayed up all night singing." He says, "It was it was pretty high. It wasn't the highest." So, what was the highest? The highest? The Pesach Seder of Moishele, the holy drunkard. Moishele the water carrier. Moishele the drunkard water carrier? He said, "Unfortunately, Moishele, he had an alcohol problem. And he had such a hard life. And it was Erev Pesach, and he had he's so poor, and he had this big giant bottle of whiskey. He said, "What a waste. I worked so hard for this whiskey." So, Erev Pesach, he drank. And then he had another l'chaim, he's feeling so great. Ah, he's cleaning well. He's having a high, but he took it a little too far, and he drank and drank, and he collapsed. And his rebbetzin said, "Moishele, the kinderlach are waiting." And the rebbetzin rebbetzin ah boom. And Moishele, please. Boom. And the whole night, he was momish unable to do the the mitzvahs until just 20 minutes before dawn. He says, "Rebbi, Moishele, please, the children are waiting." And Moishele took a moment. He said, "Okay, if this is what drinking does to me, I'll never drink again." And he said, "Kinderlach, I'm so sorry for what I did. But there's 20 minutes left. And ch- kinderlach, you know, Hakadosh Baruch Hu still had a lot of that ti- Hakadosh Baruch Hu took us out of Egypt. And he he took Avraham Avinu, and he took Yitz- Yitzchak and Yaakov, and we were in the hardest places, and we sinned. We were momish just like me and I sinned, and I'll never do it again. But we cried out, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu heard our prayer. And you should know, kinderlach, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is listening. Whenever you call out, he's momish there, and he will always take you out of your personal Mitzrayim, and will save Am Yisrael." And he took some matzah, and he took some wine, and he collapsed. And not encouraging, you know, drinking your whole bottle of whiskey. That's not the point of the story. But the point is that you got to open up your hearts, of course, all the gematrias and all the beautiful torahs. But the end of the the the day, at the end of the night, Hashem should bless us to open up our hearts on the night of on the holy night of Seder, and daven and cry and be real with ourselves and with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hashem elokeinu Hashem elokeinu Hashem elokeinu Hashem elokeinu Hashem elokeinu Hashem [singing] elokeinu Hashem [singing] elokeinu Hashem [singing] elokeinu Hashem >> [music] >> elokeinu >> [singing] >> Hashem >> [music] >> elokeinu >> [singing] >> Hashem [music] >> [singing] >> elokeinu >> [music] >> Hashem [singing] elokeinu [music]